Patience, Perspective, and the Power of Story: An Interview with Toni Ann Johnson, by Scott LaMascus

Patience, Perspective, and the Power of Story: An Interview with Toni Ann Johnson, by Scott LaMascus Interviews [email protected] Mon, 10/16/2023 - 13:46 Storyteller Toni Ann Johnson uses her skills as an actor, playwright, and fiction writer to tell powerful stories of race, reconciliation, and the effects of lingering racism. She is award-winning on stage and screen, most recently with her story collection Light Skin Gone to Waste (University of Georgia Press, 2022), selected for the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. When I spoke to Johnson in Los Angeles and later by email, we explored the role stories can play in our understanding of truths, including matters many would rather forget. Scott LaMascus: If you were joining the late Flannery O’Connor on her porch in Milledgeville, Georgia, what do you hope she would praise about your stories that were honored with the award named for her? Toni Ann Johnson: I wouldn’t expect Ms. O’Connor to praise my stories. Her racism would likely have prevented her from appreciating their subject matter. In her letters, she wrote: About the Negroes, the kind I don’t like is the philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind, the James Baldwin kind. Very ignorant but never silent. Baldwin can tell us what it feels like to be a Negro in Harlem but he tries to tell us everything else too. O’Connor was put off by James Baldwin’s writing because it dared to stray beyond the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-16 18:46:19 UTC ]
News tagged with: #young adult #social justice #easy ways #literary agent

Other news stories related to: "Patience, Perspective, and the Power of Story: An Interview with Toni Ann Johnson, by Scott LaMascus"


Patience, Perspective, and the Power of Story: An Interview with Toni Ann Johnson, by Scott LaMascus

Patience, Perspective, and the Power of Story: An Interview with Toni Ann Johnson, by Scott LaMascus Interviews [email protected] Mon, 10/16/2023 - 13:46 Storyteller Toni Ann Johnson uses her skills as an actor, playwright, and fiction writer to... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-16 18:46:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #literary agent #easy ways #social justice #ruby bridges #young adult


Sky News pulls out of Boris Johnson interview over recording ban

Beth Rigby’s withdrawal after not being allowed to record conversation follows BBC cancellation over notes gaffeSky News has pulled out of an interview with Boris Johnson after its political editor was told she could not make an audio recording or transcript of the talk.The former prime minister... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-10-04 18:51:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir #dropped earlier #foreign secretary #prime minister #audio recording #political editor #boris johnson


Scott And Mark Hoying's Debut Children's Book Celebrates Their Real-Life Love Story

The Pentatonix singer and his husband say "How Lucky Am I?" parallels their own experiences as a married couple, including their dream of starting a family. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2024-06-20 16:24:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #children's book #debut children


Pratchett power: from lost stories to new adaptations, how the late Discworld author lives on

It’s 40 years since The Colour of Magic hit the shelves. As newly unearthed short stories are published, fans and friends celebrate the late author’s enduring legacy“Of all the dead authors in the world, Terry Pratchett is the most alive,” said John Lloyd at the author’s memorial in 2015. This... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-10-07 10:00:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #short stories #graphic novel #neil gaiman #good omens


A Different Look at the Anne Frank Story

'The Last Secret of the Secret Annex' explores the betrayal of Anne Frank to the Nazis and the pain still felt by the family of a woman who had helped hide the Frank family. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #anne frank


On the Outsize Power of the Short Story (AKA the Genre of “High Genius”)

Story collections are the country cousins of the American publishing landscape, tolerated with benevolent condescension while their authors are urged to produce that more glamorous product: novels. A novel might find a broad audience, even become a bestseller! Whereas—as a writer friend once put... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-13 08:53:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #american publishing #story collection #ve written #broad audience #story collections


Bedtime Stories From Toni Morrison: Priscilla Gilman on Her Singular Literary Upbringing

Family memoirs are never about one thing. There’s always a compelling domestic story; in her new memoir, The Critic’s Daughter, Priscilla Gilman tells a fascinating story about her dynamic parents and the literary world that they inhabited. But good memoirs always involve a secondary subplot (or... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-06 09:54:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #literary world #fascinating story #priscilla gilman #toni morrison #bedtime stories


Beneath Its Pink Cover, ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ Offers a Story About Power

The best-selling debut author Bonnie Garmus created Elizabeth Zott, a chemist battling a sexist 1950s establishment, as the role model she craved — and found that readers wanted the same. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-11-16 14:07:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #debut author #readers wanted #role model


Powerful stories in 'Letter to a Stranger' will transport you around the world

The L.A. Times Book Clubs reads 'Letter to a Stranger,' a new collection that celebrates the serendipity of chance encounters. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-05-11 14:00:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #times book #powerful stories


'Interview with a Vampire' Author Anne Rice Dies at Age 80

Rice, whose books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, died of complications from a stroke on December 11. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-12-13 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Legend Press lands Snyder's 'powerful' First World War story

Legend Press has landed The Tin Nose Shop, an “incredibly powerful” First World War novel by Don J Snyder. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-11 06:14:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #world war #legend press #incredibly powerful


Katherine Johnson of ‘Hidden Figures’ tells her story in her own words

“I always pushed myself to go higher,” Johnson wrote in her posthumous memoir “My Remarkable Journey” Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-05-29 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir #posthumous memoir #hidden figures #katherine johnson


Brittany Higgins' memoir will join a powerful Australian collection reclaiming women's stories of trauma. Here are four

Brittany Higgins' forthcoming memoir will allow her to tell her story in her own words. She'll join a group of strong women who've done just that. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2021-04-15 03:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir #strong women #brittany higgins #ll join #forthcoming memoir


Scott O’Connor’s ‘Zero Zone’ is a sophisticated thriller about the power of art

When an art installation leads to death, the question arises: How culpable is the artist? Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-10-05 11:08:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Historical Fiction and the Power of Stories

How historical fiction gave one reader deeper and more vivid insights into history and guided her career in teaching and librarianship. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-09-28 10:35:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #historical fiction


In ‘The Book of Two Ways,’ Jodi Picoult delivers another powerful story about heart-wrenching moral choices

The book takes a “Sliding Doors” approach, as a woman, on the heels of a near-death experience, contemplates her next move. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-22 14:35:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #near-death experience #powerful story #book takes


Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi | 'Stories have such power you cannot imagine'

The First Woman, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's powerful feminist novel about a headstrong young woman’s coming-of-age in 1970s Uganda, has had a long and fraught path to publication. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 17:05:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Behind the Iraq War, a story of influence, intelligence and presidential power

Robert Draper explains the complex forces that led America to launch the 2003 conflict. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-08-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #iraq war


The Surreal Stories of “Lake Like a Mirror” Show How Power Distorts Reality

Ho Sok Fong is without a doubt one of the most lauded Malaysian short story writers working in Chinese. Since winning her first literary prize in 2002, she has authored two story collections, namely Maze Carpet and Lake Like a Mirror, both published in Taiwan. Lake Like a Mirror is now available... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-04-28 11:00:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #literary prize #electric literature #story collections


In ‘How to Pronounce Knife,’ stories of Lao immigrants reveal everyday moments of racism, classism, power and privilege

Souvankham Thammavongsa’s debut collection investigates how work shapes the immigrant identity and how erasure and invisibility lead to isolation. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-23 05:40:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #souvankham thammavongsa #pronounce knife